40 Fun Facts About Fruit of the Spirit

In Jesus's parable about kindness, who helps a beaten traveller after a priest and a Levite walk past?

A Samaritan was the last hero the audience expected, since Jews of the day did not associate with Samaritans. He bandaged the man's wounds and paid an innkeeper to care for him.

Which biblical sufferer, stripped of wealth, family and health, gave English a byword for patience?

Job is praised for his endurance in the letter of James, and the King James wording, 'the patience of Job', passed into everyday speech.

Jesus entered Jerusalem 'gentle and riding on' which animal, fulfilling a prophecy of Zechariah?

A donkey carries the king in Zechariah's prophecy, which goes on to promise that he will take away the war horses and proclaim peace to the nations.

On the night Jesus was born, to whom did an angel announce 'good news that will cause great joy'?

Shepherds keeping watch over their flocks near Bethlehem heard it first, then hurried into town and found the baby lying in a manger.

Teaching his disciples how to bear much fruit, Jesus says 'I am the vine; you are the' what?

Branches cut off from the vine simply wither, Jesus goes on, so his followers bear fruit only by staying joined to him: 'apart from me you can do nothing'.

Paul names love as the greatest of three things that last, alongside faith and which other quality?

Hope completes a trio that Christian teaching later named the theological virtues. Joined to the four cardinal virtues, they make up the traditional seven virtues.

Which exile in Babylon kept praying three times a day despite a royal ban and was thrown to lions?

Daniel kept his windows open toward Jerusalem and prayed just as before, a lasting picture of faithfulness. King Darius, tricked into signing the ban, could not sleep and hurried to the den at dawn.

After fasting forty days in the wilderness, Jesus refused the devil's dare to turn stones into what?

Bread was what the tempter urged a hungry Jesus to conjure. He answered with a line from Deuteronomy, 'Man shall not live on bread alone', a classic picture of self-control.

From love to self-control, how many qualities does the NIV Bible list as the fruit of the Spirit?

Nine qualities make up the list, yet the Greek word Paul uses for fruit, karpos, is singular: one fruit, not a basket of separate ones.

Which letter of Paul, attacking demands that Gentile converts be circumcised, lists the fruit of the Spirit?

Galatians is also where Paul recalls opposing Peter to his face at Antioch for drawing back from eating with Gentile believers.

Just before the fruit of the Spirit, Paul lists vices such as envy and drunkenness as the acts of what?

The flesh here means the sinful side of human nature rather than the body itself. Paul's catalogue runs from sexual immorality and idolatry to fits of rage and orgies.

Which word completes Paul's verdict on the fruit of the Spirit, 'Against such things there is no ___'?

Law is the letter's running theme, and a few verses earlier Paul tells his readers that anyone led by the Spirit is no longer under it.

Which Greek word for selfless love, distinct from eros and philia, names the first fruit of the Spirit?

Agape is love by choice rather than by feeling, a goodwill that gives without asking anything back. Older English Bibles often translated it as 'charity'.

Which King James Version word for patience in the fruit of the Spirit also describes God as slow to anger?

Longsuffering was the 1611 translators' choice. The New International Version now prints 'forbearance' in the same place, and many other modern Bibles simply say patience.

Which King James Version word for the last fruit of the Spirit later named a movement against alcohol?

Temperance in 1611 meant self-restraint in every appetite. Only in the early nineteenth century did campaigners narrow the word to total abstinence from drink.

Which Bible chapter, a favourite reading at weddings, describes love as patient and kind and never failing?

1 Corinthians 13 was written to a quarrelling church, not to a bride and groom, yet the Church of England calls it the most popular reading at its weddings.

In the Sermon on the Mount, 'By their fruit you will recognise them' is Jesus's test for spotting whom?

False prophets, Jesus warns, come in sheep's clothing but are wolves inside. He adds that nobody picks grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles.

Which Old Testament book foretells a child to be called Wonderful Counsellor and Prince of Peace?

Isaiah's words are a fixture of Christmas services, and Handel set them to music in Messiah as the chorus 'For unto us a Child is born'.

In the Beatitudes, Jesus says 'Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called' what?

Children of God is the promise attached to the seventh Beatitude. The one that follows blesses people who are persecuted for doing what is right.

Which letter did Paul write in chains yet fill with joy, urging readers to 'Rejoice in the Lord always'?

Philippians returns to joy again and again in four short chapters, even as Paul notes that the whole palace guard knows he is a prisoner for Christ.

Which woman's name comes from the Greek word for peace that Paul uses in the fruit of the Spirit?

Irene comes from eirene, and the Greeks also honoured Eirene as the goddess of peace. A famous Athenian statue showed her cradling the infant god of plenty.

Where was Jesus sailing when he calmed a storm with words the King James Version gives as 'Peace, be still'?

The Sea of Galilee is really the lowest freshwater lake on Earth. Jesus was asleep on a cushion in the stern when the squall broke over the boat.

Which son was born to Abraham and Sarah after years of patient waiting, when Abraham was a hundred?

Isaac means 'he laughs'. Sarah had laughed at the idea of a baby in old age, and at his birth she said God had brought her laughter.

Which worker does the letter of James hold up as a model of patience for believers awaiting the Lord's coming?

A farmer cannot hurry the rain or the harvest, James points out, and he tells believers to wait for the Lord's coming in the same steady way.

Which famous song of King David ends with goodness and love following the singer 'all the days of my life'?

Psalm 23 closes with the singer at home in the house of the Lord, after a walk through the darkest valley and a feast laid out in front of his enemies.

Which man nicknamed 'son of encouragement' does Acts call 'a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith'?

Barnabas sold a field and gave the money to the apostles. He later vouched for the newly converted Saul when the believers in Jerusalem were still afraid of him.

'Well done, good and faithful servant' is the praise in which parable of Jesus about money left in trust?

The talents were huge sums: one was worth about twenty years of a labourer's pay. The English word for a gift you are meant to use probably comes from this story.

Which Old Testament book, traditionally credited to Jeremiah, gave the hymn 'Great Is Thy Faithfulness' its title?

Lamentations is five poems of grief over ruined Jerusalem, yet in the third the poet turns to say that God's compassions never fail and that his faithfulness is great.

Which emotion does a famous line in Proverbs say that 'a gentle answer turns away'?

Wrath is cooled by a soft reply, the proverb says, while its second half warns that a harsh word stirs up anger.

To which defenceless thing does the book of Proverbs compare a person who lacks self-control?

A city with broken walls lay open to any raider in the ancient world, and the proverb says a person who cannot govern their own impulses is just as exposed.

Catholic tradition counts twelve fruits of the Holy Spirit, following which ancient translation of the Bible?

The Vulgate, the Latin Bible of the medieval Western church, gives a longer list in this verse, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church still cites it.

Which thirteenth-century Dominican friar argued that twelve was a fitting number for the fruits of the Holy Spirit?

Thomas Aquinas made the case in his Summa Theologica, linking the twelve to the tree of life in Revelation, which bears twelve crops of fruit.

Which Greek word, built from 'long' and 'temper', stands behind patience in Paul's fruit of the Spirit?

Makrothumia is the opposite of being short-tempered. Greek writers applied it to someone able to avenge himself who held back, and the Bible often uses it of God.

Out of loyalty to which fallen prince did King David seat lame Mephibosheth at the royal table for life?

Jonathan, Saul's son, had made a covenant with David years earlier. Once king, David asked whether anyone of Saul's house was left to whom he could show kindness.

In the NIV text of Ephesians, 'goodness, righteousness and truth' are described as the fruit of what?

Light is what most modern versions print in this verse, but the King James Version has 'the fruit of the Spirit' here, a second appearance of Paul's famous phrase.

In Revelation, which persecuted church is told, 'Be faithful, even to the point of death'?

Smyrna is modern Izmir, in Turkey. The message calls its poor believers rich, warns of prison and ten days of persecution, and promises life as a victor's crown.

Which Roman governor grew afraid as Paul spoke about righteousness, self-control and the judgement to come?

Felix cut the talk short with 'That's enough for now!' and then kept Paul in custody for two years, hoping all the while to be offered a bribe.

Which virtue ends the Catholic list of twelve fruits of the Holy Spirit, right after modesty and self-control?

Chastity closes the list in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which describes the fruits as perfections the Holy Spirit forms in believers as a foretaste of eternal glory.

On the night before his crucifixion, Jesus said the greatest love is to lay down one's life for whom?

Friends is the very name Jesus then gives his disciples: no longer servants, he says, because he has told them everything he learned from his Father.

Which small part of the body does the letter of James say no human being can tame, a warning about self-control?

The tongue, James says, is like a ship's rudder or a spark that sets a great forest ablaze: tiny, yet able to steer or wreck a whole life.